There are various methods of disinfecting water supplies. For instance, some systems use chlorine dioxide, which is unstable and may produce undesirable byproducts such as chlorates. Similarly, ozone can be used. However, ozone is an unstable chemical and breaks down rapidly as does UV radiation (ultra violet light) from UV treatment systems. Additionally, neither of these systems leaves a residual disinfectant in the water supply. Thus, chlorine is one of the most widely used and adopted methods of sanitizing water.
Chlorine is the most widely used method of neutralizing disease causing pathogens and bacteria in a body of water. Although there are other means of neutralizing bacteria and pathogens, chlorine is the disinfectant of choice for many reasons. Chlorine kills pathogenic organisms efficiently and effectively by attacking the cell or the cell enzyme system. In either case, the inactivation of the pathogenic organisms is achieved. The chlorine residual HOCL is a longer lasting residual that effectively kills pathogens until dissipated. EPA requirements for potable or public water facilities and state requirements for chlorine levels are as follows: 0.2 mg/L-0.5 mg/L free chlorine residual. As such, safe levels of chlorine can be maintained to eradicate any bacteria or pathogens in the water without risk to public safety.
However, even though chlorine is relatively inexpensive and safe as compared to other types of sanitizers, the cost of chlorine in tablet and liquid systems, like those used to typically sanitize a pool, becomes an extremely expensive proposition over the lifetime of the pool. Moreover, significant hazards, time, labor, and other costs are associated with storing and handling toxic chlorine and/or other hazardous chemicals such as chlorine tablets, oxidizers, algaecides or algae inhibitors.
Another problem with the use of tablet and liquid based chlorine systems, like that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,656,353 is the need to stabilize the chlorine such that it remains in the water, as UV rays tend to deplete or damage chlorine molecules during the day. Typically, this is accomplished in a tablet system by the addition of cyanuric acid or similar stabilizing agents. However, these agents can build up to undesirable levels which can present a health problem and cause damage to pool plaster and can require draining the body of water and adding fresh water to reduce concentrations.
Several attempts have been made to utilize chlorine or ion producing generators to treat water. However, besides the problems already mentioned above, such devices tend to have significant reliability problems and/or require complex chemical production and containment requirements. Moreover, such systems tend to require a professional to install and maintain resulting in expensive installation and maintenance costs. This is especially true of the heretofore known systems.
Systems such as those in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,136,005 to Persson et al.; 4,255,246 to Davis et al.; 4,472,256 to Hilbig; 5,427,658 to Allen; 5,468,360 to David et al. and 5,807,473, to Sadler et al. typically utilize significant amounts of electricity and generate significant amounts of heat during operation. Some of these systems have even included heating elements within the system, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,159, which shows an electrolytic pool chlorinator with a resistive heater, adding heat into the system around the electrolytic units. This results in the locating of controls and electronics, which are negatively affected by the increased operating temperatures, remotely from the chlorinator.
This increases the complexity in these existing devices, as electrical connections must extend from the chlorinator to the controller and back to the chlorinator to properly function. Generally, electrical systems, especially complex systems with multiple connections, in close proximity with salt water can be dangerous in and of themselves and may tend to cause accidental electrical shock hazards under some conditions. This is coupled with the fact that these systems are also subject to electrical shorting in the normal course of operation, which causes breakdowns, an absence of chlorination during the breakdowns, repair expenses, and other problems.
These chlorinators work to the extent that they do satisfactorily treat the water, but they have serious drawbacks. Essentially, they have very limited lifespans without maintenance and are thus both inconvenient and expensive to maintain in full working order. If the chlorinator elements should fail, in the heretofore known complex designs a professional installer is often called upon to repair or reinstall the chlorinator and reconnect the system. This results in downtime and potentially significant additional costs for these systems and inconvenience, in the case of pool systems, for the pool owner.
In an attempt to provide easier maintenance access for these professionals, various inline embodiments of these systems have been provided. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,085,028 to McCallum; 4,100,052 to Stillman; 4,714,534 to Fair et al.; and 4,861,451 to David; and U.S. application 2003/0024809 to Broembsen disclose inline chlorinator systems that begin in the simplification of the design, consolidating the working components of the chlorinator in an inline design at an input line for the pool. However, in each of the instances, several electrical connections are required to make the system functional and the systems are therefore still difficult to maintain for the average pool owner.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,391,167 attempted to address this issue, by providing an easily removable two-part housing. The chlorinator comprises a housing having in-line inlet and outlet openings and a removable cover. An input bridge is provided which is designed to provide overvoltage and surge protection, as well as low-loss input rectification to keep heat generation low. However, the controller for the system, including the sensor element, must still be located remotely from the system and requires that several electrical connections be made before the system is functional. All of these designs still require connection to a master controller located remotely from the electrolysis package.
The significant maintenance, repair and operation costs involved with such systems can be disappointing to pool owners who were led to believe their system would reduce costs by eliminating the need to purchase chlorine. None of these systems to date has been able to locate all the mechanical and electrical components in one easy to use and easy to replace “plug and play”, in-line package incorporating both the electrolytic components used for generating the chlorine and the control and power management components in a single housing together with a heat dissipation system to protect these electrical elements.
The prior art discussed above does not provide a long life, low maintenance, purification system that is an extremely effective purifying water and which incorporates its controller in situ on the inline device and, in a preferred embodiment, and utilizes a heat sink element to help cool the electronics. Consequently, there remains a need to provide a highly reliable, easy to use and install water purification apparatus. Those of skill in the art will appreciate the present invention, which addresses the above and other problems and long felt needs.